7 Steps to Strengthening Health

Strengthening Health is an orderly approach to eating and living. It is based on creating healthy eating habits (format of meals), and diet (content or food choices, and quality within the meal).

EATING HABITS: (FORMAT OF MEALS)

1. Take time for your meals every day.

Sit down to eat your meals or snacks without doing other things. This is the first step towards good health and will help you feel more satisfied. It is an expression of your appreciation for food and allows you to receive nourishment.

Allow adequate time for your meals. The meal has a minimum time the same as sleep. It takes at least 20 minutes for your body to adjust and receive nourishment.

Eat slowly and chew well. Eating slowly and mindfully returns you to balance and relieves stress. Chewing is like a pump that circulates all of your body's energy and fluids, it is the internal body rub (see step 4).

Stop eating 3 hours before bedtime. Your body cleans and repairs itself while you sleep. Your stomach needs to be empty for this process to be efficient.

Eat in an orderly manner. Soup may be eaten first or together with the meal. Start with heavy, well-cooked dishes and finish with lighter, less-cooked dishes. Grains should be eaten from beginning to end of the meal. Your beverage and dessert come last.

Avoid mixing foods in the same mouthful.

2. Set your daily schedule.

Rise early and sleep before midnight. Rise early to be more active and discharge more toxins. Sleep before midnight to be more refreshed and healthy.

Keep your meal times regular. Regular meals regulate all of your body's cycles--physical, emotional, mental. They make your energy and life more stable.

DIET: (CONTENT AND QUALITY OF MEALS)

3. Eat 2 or 3 complete and nutritionally balanced meals every day.

Grain and vegetable dishes together at the same meal provide the most complete and balanced nutrition. Plan every meal around cooked grains and grain products.

Vegetable dishes: Complete and balance every meal with 1 to 2 vegetable dishes.

Soup: Activate and harmonize your digestion with a bowl of vegetable soup at 1 or 2 meals.

LIFESTYLE: (APPROACH TO HEALTH)

4. Make your daily life active.

Walk for 30 minutes every day. Walking outside at a comfortable pace, with a natural stride produces the best results. It can be a combined 30 minutes.

Give yourself a daily body rub. Gently rub your entire body with a hot, damp, cotton face cloth for 10 to 15 minutes morning and/or night. Do it separate from your bath or shower. The body rub is the Secret of the Fountain of Youth, it winds back your biological clock. The body rub together with thorough chewing will make you younger in body and mind, day by day.

Life-related exercise provides the most benefit for lasting health.

Hobbies: Cultivate and take time for hobbies.

5. Create a more natural environment.

You can think of your home as a recharging station. It is a place to relax, return to balance and enrich your life.

Cotton clothing: Wear pure cotton clothing next to your skin.

6. Make your macrobiotic practice work.

Keeping to the format of meals improves your ability to make healthier food choices. If you keep the format you can follow these principles at home or in a restaurant. It helps you make better food choices.

Keep a daily menu book to help you become more objective about your macrobiotic practice.

7. Cultivate the spirit of health.

* Have openness, curiosity and endless appreciation for all of life.

* Be flexible and adaptable in your practice.

* Develop a strong will and the determination to create your own health.